Life buoy

ABSTRACT

A life buoy is disclosed. The buoy is a hollow and elliptic disk member having a bottom wall formed with hard rubber or a hard synthetic resin, and in the shape of a ship bottom having a keel and an upper wall formed with soft rubber or a soft synthetic resin, said buoy being used for holding a human body on the upper wall thereof on the surface of the water.

United States Patent 1191 Yamanka May 21, 1974 LIFE BUOY 3,235,892 2/1966 Emery 9/348x 3,048,859 8/1962 M '11 1 9 11 R [76] inventor Senya 3,479,046 11/1969 Th cinfpson 21 30/18 Mawnouchl, Jello-Shh Japan 3,414,919 12/1968 Gust 9/310 F [22] Filed: Nov. 27, 1972 Appl. No.2 309,942

Foreign Application Priority Data July 18, 1972 Japan 47-86876 July 18, 1972 Japan 47-86877 U.S. Cl 9/311, 5/348, 297/456 Int. Cl. B63c 9/16 Field of Search 9/311, 312, 348, 310 F, 9/310 R, 310 G, 11 A, 11 R, 2 A, 8 R, 347, 400; 280/12 R, 12 B, 18, 19; 297/456, DIG. 3; 5/348, 348 WB, 337

Primary Examiner-Duane A. Reger Assistant Examiner-Paul E. Sauberer Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack [57] ABSTRACT A life buoy is disclosed. The buoy is a hollow and elliptic disk member having a bottom wall formed with hard rubber or a hard synthetic resin, and in the shape of a ship bottom having a keel and an upper wall formed with soft rubber or a soft synthetic resin, said buoy being used for holding a human body on the upper wall thereof on the surface of the water.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures LIFE BUOY This invention relates to improvement of a life buoy, and more particularly to a hollow elliptic disk buoy, the bottom wall thereof being fonned of a hard material, the upper wall thereof being formed of a soft material.

An object of this invention is to provide a buoy that is more slidable on the water and more comfortable to the bodily touch than the known buoy that is formed either with a hard material only or with a soft material only, since the bottom wall of the buoy of this invention is formed with a hard material, while the upper wall thereof is formed with a soft material.

This invention is described in detail hereinunder in reference to the annexed drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation showing the state of use of the buoy of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective of the buoy of this invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line IIIIII of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a perspective of a buoy showing another embodiment of this invention; and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line V-V of FIG. 4.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 to 3, the symbol (A) designates a hollow buoy formed in the shape of a substantially elliptic disk, the numeral 1 designating a bottom wall member constituting the lower half of said buoy. The bottom wall member is composed of a hard rubber or a hard synthetic resin and is formed into a shape substantially similar to a bottom of a ship. The numeral 2 designates an upper wall member constituting the upper half of the buoy (A), the upper wall member being flexible and resilient since said upper wall is composed of a soft rubber or a soft synthetic resin.

The exterior peripheral edge of the upper wall member 2 is integrated with that of the bottom wall member by means of fusion or the like thereby creating a buoy (A) that is an inflatable body. A hollow portion 3 is formed inside said body by supplying air thereinto.

The numeral 4 designates an openable stopper provided on the buoy (A) for supplying air thereinto or drawing air therefrom. The numeral 5 designates a keel member formed on the bottom wall member 1.

The buoy shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprises a construction as described hereinbefore, the upper wall member 2 consisting of a soft material and being inflated by supplying air into the hollow portion 3 through the openable stopper 4. The buoy is placed on the water so that the hard bottom wall member 1 comes into contact with the surface of the water (S), and a human body is positioned on the soft upper wall member 2 as shown in FIG. 1.

If used in this manner, the buoy (A) not only rides on the water with more slidability because of the hard bottom wall member 1, but also fits the human body (M) with better conformity because of the soft upper wall member 2, with the result that the buoy of this invention has greater utility than known buoys.

Next, FIGS. 4 and 5 show another embodiment of the buoy according to this invention. The buoy (A) which consists of soft rubber or a soft synthetic resin is flexible and resilient, said buoy (A) comprising a floating member consisting of a peripheral wall 11 formed into a hollow elliptic disk and a bottom wall member (B) consisting of hard rubber or a hard synthetic resin formed in the shape of the bottom of a ship, said floating member being integrated with said bottom wall member (B) by detachably fitting the former in abutment against the latter (B).

The bottom wall member (B) of the buoy (A) receives inside the peripheral wall of the recession 13 thereof more than substantially half the floating member. Therefore, if the floating member is fitted into the bottom wall member (B) and said floating member is inflated by supplying air into the hollow portion 12 thereof through the openable stopper 14 until the bottom of said floating member comes into tight contact with the recession 13 of the bottom wall member (B), the floating member can no longer slip out of the bottom wall member (B). The numeral 15 in the drawing designates a keel member formed on the bottom wall member (B).

The aforementioned buoy (A) shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 has a bottom wall member (B) that is independent of the floating member. As described hereinbefore, however, the floating member is integrated with the bottom wall member (B), said bottom wall member (B) consisting of a hard material being placed on the surface of the water (S), a human body (M) being placed upon the peripheral wall 11 consisting of a soft material as shown in FIG. 1.

As described hereinbefore, the buoy (A) of this invention is provided with a bottom member formed with a hard material and an upper wall member formed with a soft material, said hard and soft members being integrally fused together or independent members being detachably jointed together.

Consequently, the buoy of this invention has greater utility than the known buoy, since the buoy of this invention has greater slidability on the water because of hardness of the bottom member thereof and better conformity to the human body because of softness of the upper member thereof.

What is claimed is:

l. A life buoy, comprising a bottom wall member formed of a hard rubber or synthetic resin into the shape of an approximately elliptic disk and rounded to approximate the shape of a ship bottom and having an integral keel depending therefrom and a corresponding upper wall member formed of a soft rubber or synthetic resin and attached to said lower wall member thus constituting an integral hollow body, said body adapted to be inflated for use. 

1. A life buoy, comprising a bottom wall member formed of a hard rubber or synthetic resin into the shape of an approximately elliptic disk and rounded to approximate the shape of a ship bottom and having an integral keel depending therefrom and a corresponding upper wall member formed of a soft rubber or synthetic resin and attached to said lower wall member thus constituting an integral hollow body, said body adapted to be inflated for use. 